Can Childhood Trauma Make You Sick?

Suffering through a traumatic childhood doesn't just leave emotional marks. It also leads to physical ailments, even among those whose adult lives are relatively free of turmoil. That, at least, is the finding of epidemiologists who have been researching the long-term effects of childhood stress. In one study, adults with healthy lifestyles who had suffered severe childhood trauma were found to have four times the risk of heart disease than adults who'd had peaceful, stable childhoods. What can we do to intervene medically in the world of childhood trauma? For adults with childhood trauma in their history, what can physicians do to improve their health? Physician Nadine Burke, medical director of the Bayview Child Health Center, Robin Karr-Morse, author of Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease, and Katie Albright, executive director of the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center, visit Zócalo to explore whether medicine can address one of our most difficult societal problems.

This event and podcast are made possible by a grant from the California Healthcare Foundation.